Nelson Mandela

Dear Student

In 1942, i was an educated lawyer. In 1944 i joined in  ANC (African National Congress). ANC was created by a group of African chiefs, lawyers and teachers.
During the Second World War, i and 60 other ANC members started a series of  ANC that would transform the organization into a mass movement against white domination. I worked hard on this task and was promoted to secretary of the ANC. When the National Party won the election in 1948, the ANC reacted very strongly.
For the first time in the ANC's history began to protest violently and the black civil stopped following the rules that the white government has set for them. ANC also decided that they will demand equal rights for all. ANC wanted the black people to understand what was happening in the South African society,  so they started educating an alphabetic adults and they let the kids go to school for free.
Our next big project was to travel around South Africa to ask the black people for civil disobedience. I was one of those who made ??this trip. Naturally white government classified this trip as illegal and i was arrested just like many other ANC members. I was sent to trial.
During the 50th century, i continued to work with the ANC. I fought against the apartheid system in South Africa, although i was harassed of the white government and police.
In 1960 their was a large demonstration against passports laws. The Blacks were not allowed to visit other countries if they do not show their passports.
During the demonstrations, the police killed black women and children and demonstrators were injured. After this demonstration, the government banned the ANC. They had no right to be a part of South African society.

In South Africa Apartheid grew to be a system of governance that discriminated against black South Africans.
From 1948 until early 1994, apartheid was law in South Africa, although it is regarded as a violation of international law. People in South Africa was divided into the categories white, black, colored, Indian (or Asian). In 1958, Blacks were deprived of their citizenship. There were separate schools, buses, shops and hospitals for the black and colored people and the services available were well under the standard set out the less white. The violence had increased during that time in South Africa.

When i was 44 years old, i was sent to Robben Island in Cape Town, a prison on an island surrounded by rough seas. In 1959 the apartheid government decided to build a maximum-security prison for black men. While i was a prisoner on Robben Island,
i had to break the limestone in a quarry. It was very difficult. I trained other prisoners to fight for freedom. The government stopped this by moving me to another prison, Pollsmoor. While i was in prison, i became more and more famous around the world. Although the Government had respect for me, the government kept me in prison.

In 1989, Frederik Willem de Klerk was President of South Africa.
He understood that the government was forced to make peace with the ANC. He decided to release me.
I was 70 years old when I became free. I had spent 27 years in prison. In 1994, i took the first democratic elections in South Africa location. Then i was elected as president of South Africa.

I got the nobel peace prize in 1993. It was awarded jointly to me and Frederik Willem de Klerk "for our work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regim...